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About Tap Attack

Tap Attack are world renowned tap specialists, comprising a performance company, a world class training initiative and the GB tap team. Since its inception, Tap Attack has taught thousands of tap dancers every year, sharing inspirational workshops all over the world. We are especially proud of our regional associate programme, which offers the highest calibre of technical training to tap dancers across the UK

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Faculty

Jo Scanlan

Jo is an award-winning tap dancer, choreographer and director of Tap Attack, as well as a Guinness World Record™ holder. With countless TV and theatre credits, an illustrious teaching career, and numerous World Championship titles. . .

Jo Scanlan

Faculty

James Doughtfire

James has spent 20 years touring the world with Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs as both a performer and Assistant Director. He was also Assistant Director of The London West End production of Tap Dogs, staring Adam Garcia. . .

Faculty

Jessica-Jo Marshall

Jessica-Jo Began her training in Essex at the Angela Allport Performing Arts School before attending The Royal Ballet School, Elmhurst School for Dance and the Ailey School, New York. . .

Jessica-Jo Marshall

Faculty

Kai Scanlan

Kai trained at Wilkes Academy and Tap Attack. He currently teaches for Tap Attack and the UK Tap Team where he has achieved over 25 World Championship titles, both as a dancer and choreographer. . .

Kai Scanlan

Faculty

Ollie Botterill

Ollie trained at LCPA, graduating with a Trinity National Diploma in Musical Theatre and 3 B.T.D.A Diplomas. Ollie has appeared in many shows such as, ‘Tap Factory’ (Worldwide). . .

Ollie Botterill

Faculty

Emma Tuck

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Emma Tuck

Faculty

Chris Sparkes

Chris graduated from Bird College with a First-Class BA (Honors) in Professional Dance and Musical Theatre. Upon graduating, Chris was presented with the Most Professional Gentleman Award and the Acting Achievement Award. . .

Chris Sparkes

Faculty

Charlotte Jones

Charlotte graduated with a First Class BA Hons in Dance from Addict Dance Academy, where she trained in Ballet, Tap, Contemporary, Commercial, Hip Hop, Jazz and Latin . . .

Charlotte Jones Tap Attack

Faculty

Harvey Shulver

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Harvey Shulver

Faculty

Jack Evans

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Jack Evans

Jo Scanlan

Jo Scanlan

Jo is an award-winning tap dancer, choreographer and director of Tap Attack, as well as a Guinness World Record™ holder. With countless TV and theatre credits, an illustrious teaching career, and numerous World Championship titles, Jo has established herself as one of the UK’s most respected figures in tap dance.

Jo created Tap Attack in 2007 and, as Director, has built an international reputation for excellence in both performance and technical training. Under her leadership, Tap Attack has featured in theatrical, TV and corporate performances for brands including Puma, Specsavers, LV Insurance, McDonald’s, Mercedes-Benz, Hilton, Diamond Bio Pharm and Hyperoptic Broadband, and has trained the UK’s national tap team, achieving 68 World Titles to date.

As a performer and choreographer, Jo’s credits include ITV’s This Morning, The Alan Titchmarsh Show, Britain’s Got Talent, Born To Shine, Little Big Shots, Sky One’s Guinness World Records Smashed, Got To Dance and Weekend Sunrise, as well as a wealth of international theatre work across the UK, Europe and America. In 2009, she set a new Guinness World Record™ for the number of beats in 60 seconds, televised on Sky One, and more recently fronted a national advertising campaign for Hyperoptic Broadband.

With over two decades of teaching experience, Jo has been a regular and guest teacher at many of the UK’s leading full-time dance colleges, including Wilkes Academy, Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, Sylvia Young Theatre School, Bird College, Performers College, The Centre, and London Studio Centre. She is also in high demand at national and international conventions, workshops and festivals.

A Fellow of both Tap and Modern with the ISTD and IDTA, Jo completed her training at The Centre of Performing Arts. She received numerous scholarships to further her studies, including The Lisa Ullman Travel Scholarship to train with Manhattan Tap and Heather Cornell, and became the first ever dancer to be awarded the prestigious Finzi Fellowship. These awards enabled her to continue her training in New York, Los Angeles and at Oklahoma University, where she studied under some of tap’s most influential figures — Barbara Duffy, Dr Henry Le Tang, Dr Bunny Briggs, Dianne Walker, Fayard Nicholas, and Arthur Duncan.

In addition to her artistic achievements, Jo has worked as an agent for over four years and is the Co-owner and Agent at Crockford Casey Associates, representing some of the industry’s top talent.

 

James Doubtfire

James has spent 20 years touring the world with Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs as both a performer and Assistant Director. He was also Assistant Director of The London West End production of Tap Dogs, staring Adam Garcia. In 2000 James worked on the opening ceremony of The Sydney 2000 Olympics and also with his Tap Dogs colleagues had the honour of being part of the famous BBC1 identities.

James has performed in many TV shows including Big Brother, The Royal Variety Performance, The Clothes Show, Barrymore, The Generation Game, The National Lottery, This Morning, Blue Peter and GMTV. Advertisements include Amina mobile phones, T- Mobile, Lego, Le Crunch Bunch, Boots the Chemist and Colgate Toothpaste. Modelling assignments include Dolce and Gabbana, Paul Smith and various magazines. Corporates include Camel Clothing, Formula 1, Fifa, Vodafone, Seaman Mobile phones, Shivers Regale Whisky, Bacardi, Chevrolet, Mercedes, Damen Shipping yard, Charity events and Valentino Rossi Birthday.

At the age of twelve James created the role of Laughing Boy in the original musical, Bugsy Malone at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London. James then continued his career in the musicals / shows, 42nd Street (original UK tour), Me and My Girl (original UK tour), An Evening with Sondheim (Manchester), both English and Australian tours of Hot Shoe Shuffle (playing the role of Tip) and the original cast recording of Hot Shoe Shuffle, The Anton & Erin show and also choreographed two Professional Pantomimes in Harrogate, Directed by Phil Lowe.

In 2009 James became Artistic Director and Choreographer for Tap Attack (GB Tap Team). During this time James has Choreographed 14 IDO World Tap titles. James is also Choreographer & Director of all male tap company Extreme Tap who have performed in corporates at 02 Arena London, Qatar (Tennis Open), Italia (Fashion Show), Dubai (TV Shows), McDonalds (Awards Ceremony), Mercedes Benz (Awards Ceremony), Sadler’s Wells Theatre London and the Royal Albert Hall Dance Proms. Extreme Tap have also performed in Boston USA.

In 2016 James was honored to become the original Tap Choreographer for Disney’s new show Mickey & The Magician in Disneyland Paris. James now teaches at Wilkes Academy and Madd College and is currently Associate Director on the latest world tour of Tap Dogs.

Jessica-Jo Marshall

Jessica-Jo Marshall

Career: World Champion Choreographer, Trained at Alvin Ailey, Got to Dance Series 2

Jessica-Jo Began her training in Essex at the Angela Allport Performing  Arts School before attending The Royal Ballet School, Elmhurst School for Dance and the Ailey School, New York. After training Jessica-Jo continued her studies and now holds a BA in Arts Management.

As a young dancer she was offered a place in Rambert’s junior company, Quicksilver and Tap Attack, where she performed with the company and competed at the World Tap Championships for 3 years (later becoming a coach and choreographer). Jessica-Jo has made many appearances with the Birmingham Royal Ballet and had the chance to perform at the Joan Weill Center, home of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City.

More recently Jessica-Jo has had various engagements with Balletto di Milano and regularly teaches across the UK and continues to perform in the UK, the US and across Europe.

Kai Scanlan

Kai Scanlan

Kai trained at Wilkes Academy and Tap Attack. He currently teaches for Tap Attack and the UK Tap Team where he has achieved over 25 World Championship titles, both as a dancer and choreographer.  

Kai was the first tap dancer to appear on BBC Young Dancer of the Year and he was also a finalist on the show. Other TV performances include Britain’s Got Talent, Little Big Shots and Taking the Next Step, which he was runner up on. 

Kai has performed in numerous theatrical and charity galas, videos, corporate events, shows and some short films across the UK, Europe and America.

In 2023, Kai was the lead tap dancer/assistant choreographer for the debut UK tour of Emerald Storm, choreographed and directed by Adam Garcia.

Since 2024, Kai has been a part of Tap Factory, performing onboard Royal Caribbean cruises in Asia and the Caribbean, as well as performing in shows in the UK and Europe.

Ollie Botterill

Ollie Botterill

Ollie trained at LCPA, graduating with a Trinity National Diploma in Musical Theatre and 3 B.T.D.A Diplomas. Ollie has appeared in many shows such as, ‘Tap Factory’ (Worldwide), ‘Simply Gershwin’ (Guest Tap Duo, UK Tour), ‘Spirit of the Dance’ (Lead tapper, Worldwide), ‘Tap Dance Fever’ (UK, South Africa and Canada), ‘Taimid Seanachai – A Celtic Evolution’ (Canada), ‘Hollywood Spectacular’ (UK), ‘Dora’ (West End) to name a few. He has danced in many different trade shows across the UK from Bridal Shows to Printwear and has also appeared in several television adverts. Ollie co-choreographed 2 new tap shows called ‘The Rhythm Club’ and ‘The Rhythm Club 2’. After trying his hand at choreography, in 2018 he created a new tap act called ‘The Tap Chaps’ , they are now appearing on several different cruise ships worldwide for guest entertainment and also corporate entertainment. Ollie teaches at serval different performing art colleges as well doing his own workshops all over the UK, in 2015 he became part of the teaching faculty for Tap Attack.

Alongside teaching and performing Ollie has now become an International Adjudicator for Tap dance with the IDO.

Emma Tuck

Emma Tuck

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Chris Sparkes

Chris Sparkes

Chris graduated from Bird College with a First-Class BA (Honors) in Professional Dance and Musical Theatre. Upon graduating, Chris was presented with the Most Professional Gentleman Award and the Acting Achievement Award. 

In 2014 he competed at the IDO Tap World Championships and won gold with the Tap Attack England Team. In 2019, Chris joined Avalon Rathgeb’s professional tap company, OKR Dance, and has toured with the company in performances across the UK, Caribbean, and China. Other professional performance credits include, Theatre: Bobby C in Saturday Night Fever (International Tour), Oscillate (UK and China Tour), Goldilocks and the Three Bears (Newcastle Theatre Royal), Cinderella (Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage), Television: Teen Patrick Swayze in The Real Patrick Swayze, In His Own Words (Biopic), and Feature Film: Young Dave in Brighton (Director Stephen Cookson).

In the summer of 2023, Chris was 1 of 24 international dancers chosen to participate in the esteemed Jacob’s Pillow Tap program in Massachusetts, USA. He was the only participant chosen from the UK and had the opportunity to learn intensely from industry leaders including Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Michelle Dorrance, Derrick K Grant, Sam Weber, and Dominique Kelly.

Chris has a passion for teaching and choreography and teaches for the Tap Attack company and co-teaches the Tap Attack South East Associates program. He is currently on the dance faculty at Bird College and Performers College and has experience teaching at a variety of schools and institutions including Masters Performing Arts, the Centre PAC.

 

Charlotte Jones

Charlotte Jones Tap Attack

Charlotte graduated with a First Class BA Hons in Dance from Addict Dance Academy, where she trained in Ballet, Tap, Contemporary, Commercial, Hip Hop, Jazz and Latin. Prior to this she grew up dancing and trained with Tap Attack until 2018, where she performed with the company & Team GB and gained numerous World and European Champion titles for Tap Dance.

Professionally, she has worked as an ensemble dancer in the Robbie Williams tribute movie ‘Better Man’, she performed in the first ‘Move It Half Time Show’ and has also performed with ‘The Tap Chaps’ entertainment company. She recently toured the UK performing in cathedrals as a solo tap dancer for ‘The Great Gatsby ball’ event. Charlotte currently teaches at numerous dance schools & delivers regular classes and workshops across the UK.

 

Harvey Shulver

Harvey Shulver

Training: Wilkes Academy & Tap Attack

Theatre includes Joseph & the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (UK tour),Jack & the Beanstalk (Regent Theatre, Stoke).

Television includes Little Big Shots (ITV), Blue Peter Children In Need Special (CBBC), Dance Passion (BBC).

Other work includes World Tap Champion with Team GB, Tap dancer at London Cabaret Club.

Jack Evans

Jack Evans

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Jamie Spall

Jamie Spall

Jamie trained with Tap Attack as an original member from the age of 11 and remained a member until she was 17. During that time, Jamie trained with Jo Scanlan, James Doubtfire, Tarik Winston, Alison Forrester and many other guest teachers. Jamie competed as part of the England Tap Team at the IDO World Tap Championships and during her time with the team won numerous gold, silver and bronze medals.

Jamie travelled extensively to train with the best tap dance teachers in the USA and Europe, Including Jason Janas, Jason Samuels Smith, Derick Grant, Sarah Reich and Simeon Weedall.

Inspired by her trips abroad, Jamie at the age of 18 along with her friend and fellow tap dancer Kate Ivory Jordan co-founded in the UK the first ever international tap dance Festival, held in Jamie’s hometown of Brighton. The Brighton Tap festival has successfully taken place 3 times and has bought to the UK many high-quality tap teachers from around the world.

Jamie co-choreographed an award-winning tap dance show called ‘Tap That’ that premiered at the Brighton Fringe Festival. Jamie then went on to produce a successful solo tap dance show the following year called ‘Tap Addiction’. Jamie has choreographed numerous dances for students around the UK, including one that went on to win a gold medal at the dance world cup.

Jamie teaches at numerous UK dance schools, has been the resident tap teacher at Reynolds Vocational College and continues to teach as a guest teacher at other prestigious vocational colleges including Urdang Academy, Addict Dance Academy, Performers College, UCL, Dance Teachers Convention, Open Space Dance and many more. Jamie was at the age of 18 one of the youngest teachers ever to be invited to have her own regular tap dance class at Pineapple Dance Studios. Jamie is regularly invited to judge dance competitions including Sussex Jam at Brighton University. Jamie has also taught at various international Tap Dance Festivals.

Jamie’s performing credits include –

Percussive Feet (Brighton, Manchester), Got To Dance (Sky 1), This Morning (ITV), Billy Elliot The Musical (Victoria Palace, London, West End, West End Live at Trafalgar Square London), Tap That (Brighton Fringe, Kingston Youth Festival), Tap Addiction (Brighton Fringe), Multiple tap dance performances with Tap Attack, Swingin’ At The Cotton Club (Various Theatres around the UK) Fall Out (Old Kent Road Tap Company, Residency at Blue Elephant London and Edinburgh Fringe Festival and The Bunker London), Dirty Tap Funk (Old Kent Road Tap Company, The Bunker London), Oscillate (Old Kent Road Tap Company, International tour of China and extensive northern tour of the UK).

Jamie is a working mother to a one year old daughter, and continues to perform and teach.

Maud Arnold

Maud Arnold

Known as one of “Tap’s Leading Ladies” and cover girl for Dance Spirit magazine’s Tap issue, Maud Arnold is a member of the female tap band, Syncopated Ladies, widely known for viral videos that have accumulated over 50 million views. The most successful being their tribute to Prince and their cover of Beyoncé’s Formation, which Beyoncé shared on all of her social media and then hired Syncopated Ladiesto perform at her Ivy Park active wear clothing line launch at TopShop, London. Maud also performed live with Syncopated Ladies on ABC’s Good Morning America, The Ellen Showwith Pharrell Williams and N.E.R.D and sold-out concerts in Los Angeles, Dubai, New York City and Washington, DC, receiving rave reviews in The New York Times and more.

Maud has quickly become a sought after teacher, judge and performer worldwide. Mentored and trained by Debbie Allen, Maud has taught at Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles and Allen’s Dance Institute in Texas. Further to teaching in the USA, Maud has taught tap dancing and Afro-Funk in Dubai, Brazil, Japan, Spain, Haiti, United Kingdom, Mexico, Canada, Croatia, Ukraine and Russia.

Maud’s other Television Credits Include: BET Experience: 106 and Park, The Late Late Show With James Corden, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, Switched at Birth, Secret Talents of the Stars as a featured dancer with Mya, The Today Show and Syncopated Ladies winning Season 11 of FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance: Dance Crew Battle. Maud can be seen in national commercials and print ads for Toyota, GAP and CANTU and has worked with Beyoncé on several commercials and music videos.

Maud is the co-director and producer of the critically acclaimed DC Tap Festival, pioneering new experiences for dancers and artists worldwide and with her sister Chloé Arnold they were recognized by the US House of Representatives as arts preservers and ambassadors.

Maud is also a female entrepreneur that holds a degree from Columbia University and oversees Chloe and Maud Productions and their many entities including their clothing lines: I LOVE TAP and UniLove as well as their tap dance workshops, after school programs, and youth tap company.

Jared Grimes

Jared Grimes

Jared Grimes is a quadruple threat in the world of the arts where he is heavily making his mark in singing, dancing, acting, and choreographing. On numerous occasions, he has danced alongside legends such as Wynton Marsalis Gregory Hines, Debbie Allen, Ben Vereen, Jerry Lewis, and has also performed for Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy at the Kennedy Center.

Grimes has toured with Musical legend, Mariah Carey, under the choreography of Marty Kudelka, and danced for artists such as Common, Salt-n-Pepa, Envogue, Busta Rhymes and the Roots.

Jared’s theater credits include, “A Soldiers Play” on Broadway, directed by Kenny Leon, “After Midnight on Broadway”, directed by Warren Carlyle, The Radio City “Spring Spectacular” directed by Warren Carlyle and Diane Paulus and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” directed by John Rando at (Encores).

Grimes has appeared in commercials for Coca-Cola, Subway, MTV and danced on television shows such as CBS’ “Star Search,” “Showtime at the Apollo,” ABC Family’s “Dance Fever” and “The Jerry Lewis Telethon.”

His television acting credits include Foxs’ “Fringe”, HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire”, and NBCs  “Manifest”.

His feature film credits include, Paramount’s, “The Marc Pease Experience”, starring Ben Stiller, New Line Cinema’s “Little Manhattan”, Elevation Filmwork’s’ “First Born,” starring Elizabeth Shue and The Korean film “Swing Kids”.

Grimes made his choreography debut with Cirque Du Soleil and since has choreographed the musicals Holler If You Hear Me(Assoc.) Jellys Last Jam, Scottsboro Boys, Aint Misbehaving and 42nd Street.  Jared is currently playing the recurring role of Adrian Shannon on NBCs Manifest.

Alex Larder

Alex Larder

Alex is a 21 year old tap dancer from Maidenhead, England. Alex’s training started at Redroofs School of performing Arts in 2011, then furthered his training at Wilkes Academy of Performing Arts in Swindon where he recently graduated. Alex has had the opportunity to compete for his country at the IDO Tap Dance World Championships as a member of Tap Attack, becoming a current 7 time World Tap Champion. He has performed at multiple corporate events, has been invited to teach internationally at Tap Dance festivals and to perform in World Galas. His professional credits include Lionel Bart’s Oliver! West End, Singin’ In The Rain West End, Horrid Henry (film), The Genius of Turner (BBC), Noise Boys and Britain’s Got Talent (S12).

Helena Sandford

Helena Sandford

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Adele Joel

Adele Joel

Adele Joel is one of leading Tap Dancers in the UK. Based in London, she performs, teaches and choreographs all over the world.

Adele is a founding member of Old Kent Road Tap Dance Company as well being part of many international companies including Andrew Nemr’s company ‘Cat’s Paying Dues’ where she performed in the 10th Anniversary Off-Broadway show. She teaches at many leading Tap festivals around the world including Stockholm, Berlin, Poland and the US.

As a qualified teacher, Adele coaches at several dance colleges and runs her own workshops in the UK and Europe.

Adele is one of the organisers of the London Tap Jam, where she encourages and promotes the art of Tap and improvisation. Adele frequently collaborates with musicians in various jazz clubs, across the UK.

Having represented England at the IDO World Championships, Adele is now part of the training team.

Adele attends classes around the world, learning from some of today’s leading Artists and enjoys sharing her knowledge with students. She recently completed the prestigious Tap Programme at the school at Jacobs Pillow in 2019. She is also extremely excited to be starting a new show in the USA in October 2021 collaborating with Derick K Grant, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Aaron Tolson.

Ryan Campbell-Birch

Ryan Campbell-Birch

Ryan Campbell-Birch is a professional tap dance performer, teacher, and choreographer based in London, UK. His passion for tap developed at a young age, beginning under his mother’s tutelage in his hometown of Bristol, and has since taken him around the world from Stockholm to Sydney, Lon- don to LA, and New York to New Zealand.

Ryan graduated from Bird College with a 1st Class BA Hons in 2010, and just six weeks later re- turned as a faculty member to tutor students on the diploma and degree programs.

Since then, he has taught for many of the UK’s leading colleges, including Italia Conti, the Urdang Academy, Morea Performing Arts, Masters Performing Arts, Arts Ed and Guildford School of Acting. Globally, he has taught pre-professionals at Brent Street in Sydney and the Australian Institute of Music, as well as workshops in Canberra, Perth, Tauranga (NZ), Auckland, and the National Ballet School in Dubai.

Ryan has been on faculty at many tap festivals around the world including Stockholm Tap Festival, The Australian Tap Dance Festival, Tap Dance Festival UK and The London Tap Dance Intensive. He is also a workshop faculty member for the UK’s leading youth company, Tap Attack, and his choreo- graphy has won bronze, silver and gold medals at international competitions.

Believing that good teaching stems from continuous learning, Ryan has travelled the globe in order to study under some of the world’s current masters.
As a performer, Ryan has toured extensively with the sell-out show Tap Factory (EU, US, UK, UAE) and was the first British cast member in 2014.

He was a founding member of Avalon Rathgeb’s company, Old Kent Road, and has performed in the Arts Council-funded and critically acclaimed show Fall Out in venues around the UK and the Edin- burgh Fringe. Ryan co-choreographed the company’s second show, Dirty. Tap. Funk! which was commissioned by Theatre Bench for the InMotion Festival at the Bunker Theatre, London in 2017. The company has most recently released their third show OSCiLLATE, which premiered at Sadler’s Wells in summer 2018.

In addition, he is part of the organisational team at London Tap Jam, which runs every second month in Hoxton, East London. The team also frequently hosts guest tap dancers from around the world for masterclasses and performances.
Ryan is the Creative Director of Tap Dance UK — an online hub for Britain’s tap dance community providing information on classes, performances and resources for teachers, students & enthusiasts.

Additional clients and credits include:
The Australian Football League, Canon, Northern Tap Company, UK Music Video Awards, YouKu, Audi, Mercedes, The Chinese Film Festival London, The Empire Casino London, Mumford and Sons, The IDTA, The ISTD, The Tap Rhythm Project and Move It.